Pauline Peyraud-Magnin has been Juventus Women’s starting goalkeeper since the summer of 2021. She has been, unquestionably, a stalwart in goal, very much living up to the billing when she arrived from Arsenal and took over for the only woman to previously be Juve’s No. 1 keeper, Laura Giuliani. She’s been a part of some of the Bianconere’s best moments domestically and in Europe, helping the club achieve things in the Women’s Champions League that they hadn’t yet.
But change is in the air.
The dominoes,
however, are falling into place.
Last weekend, Juve secured the signing of Austrian goalkeeper Larissa Rusek, as the 21-year-old arrives from German side FC Nurnberg and has signed a contract through 2028. On the same day, Juve loaned out third-choice keeper Alessia Capelletti to Como Women for the remainder of the 2025-26 season and promoted 16-year-old youth academy product Anna Mallardi — who just signed her first professional contract 11 months and has represented Italy at multiple youth levels — to take her place on the roster for the remainder of the current campaign.
The final piece, of course, is that Daniëlle de Jong will become Juve’s full-time starter in goal after splitting time with Peyraud-Magnin for much of the season following her arrival from Twente over the summer.
All of this is because Peyraud-Magnin saw her departure from Juventus Women announced on Saturday, with a move to the NWSL in the United States expected to happen in the near future. Peyraud-Magnin — whose contract ran through the end of the 2025-26 season — is reportedly destined for NWSL expansion team Denver United FC and will officially sign with the club in the coming days.
As the Juventus Women social team posted on Instagram after her departure was announced, seeing Peyraud-Magnin leave this month was no secret or a surprise considering she was celebrating the Bianconere’s Supercoppa victory over Roma earlier this month and openly describing it as the last time she would be celebrating like this with the club. That trophy was secured on Jan. 11 — which gives you an idea of just how long this whole thing has been in the works.
Because of that, Juventus Women sporting director Stefano Braghin and manager Max Canzi are essentially starting this transition from Peyraud-Magnin to de Jong a half-season early. You don’t sign a goalkeeper like de Jong — who was part of the Netherlands’ squad for the Women’s Euros last summer — to simply park her on the bench for an entire season when she could be a starter in goal for a whole host of very good teams in Europe. She has shown in her part-time that she is a capable goalkeeper that can hopefully grow as she gets more playing time in Turin both the remainder of this season and into the future.
Plus, there’s the simple fact that Juve are still in the Women’s Champions League and eight points off Serie A Women leaders Roma when it comes to defending their Scudetto. (The format of how the women’s season goes is different from the last couple of years, so there’s no longer the chance for their to be so many head-to-head matchups for Juve to face Roma and potentially catch them that way.) Changing a starting goalkeeper in the second half of a season is never a routine thing even if she’s been playing a decent amount of minutes already.
But that just shows you how much faith the likes of Braghin and Canzi have in de Jong and her ability to essentially pick up where Peyraud-Magnin left off as the full-time starter in goal. For a club that has basically just had two No. 1 goalkeepers since their first season in 2017, that is a pretty good precedent to set.
